Old Friends
by Vanessa Gordon
Summary: Robin's buisy trying to become his own person, and finally emerge from Batmans occasionally overwelming shadow.  So when Batman's other sidekick shows up, he's less than happy.
1. Chapter 1

The Titans entered the Tower. They had just gone out for pizza, and were planning to relax for the rest of the day. Robin, always in front, stopped abruptly upon seeing a dark figure standing in the center of the room. The rest of the Titans tensed, having learned to be suspicious of mysterious visitors.

"Who are you?" asked Cyborg. Robin heard the familiar noise of him prepping his sonic cannon. He realized his friends were preparing to attack.

"Stop," he said, putting a hand on Cyborg's shoulder to calm him. "She's not here to fight." Then he turned to her. "What are you doing here?" he finished, perhaps with more anger than he meant. _No, I do mean that. I've moved on with my life. I'm not the same stupid kid with a crush on his partner that she in no way returns. She can't just come here and bring me back to that. I won't let her._

"Sheesh. I can't just drop in and say hi?" she asked.

"Call first," Robin told her. "Sorry, but I'm really tired." With that, he walked out of the room. The rest of the Titans watched him go in disbelief.

"Sorry, I'm not sure what that was about," Cyborg told her. "So who are you again?"

"Batgirl," she replied. "Well, I guess I'll just leave then."

"No, don't worry we just had a long day, I'm sure Robin will get over it," Cyborg said, interested in finding out more about Robin before he knew him.

"Yes, please stay to hang with us!" Starfire exclaimed, always friendly.

"Its movie night," Beastboy encouraged, waving scary movies in front of her face.

"Return of the Swamp Monster III?" Batgirl asked.

"We have been assured that it is the best of the series!" Starfire exclaimed in her usual cheerful manner.

"Making it slightly better than total garbage," Raven pointed out.

"Well, slight garbage?" Batgirl said, smiling. "Count me in!"

~8~

Robin sat in his room. _I shouldn't have been so mean. I'm going to have to call her and tell her I didn't mean it. Hopefully she'd understand._

~8~

He sighed. It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see her. It was the opposite. He was too happy. He was supposed to be moving on with his life, maturing, but she still made him nervous. And he knew he liked that, even though he shouldn't. **He didn't get nervous!** He was a leader now; he knew what he was doing. **NO ONE should make him nervous.**

~8~

When the Titans finished their movie marathon, it was nearly one in the morning. They'd learned several embarrassing stories from Robin's past, and found that they enjoyed Batgirl's company. Because of this, and that it was so late, they decided to let Batgirl crash on the couch for the night.

~8~

Robin was still an early riser and usually woke up before most of the other Titans. So when he walked into the living room, he was very surprised to see Batgirl sitting on the couch, reading a book. Immediately, he turned around and raced back to his room.

Batgirl looked up when she heard the door open, but no one was there, so she went back to reading.

~8~

Robin stayed in his room for the rest of the day until the alarm went off, calling all the Titans to the main room. To Robin's irritation, Batgirl was still there. It appeared that someone was robbing the Treeleaf Bank downtown. Robin noticed that Batgirl was checking her gadgets, getting ready to go.

~8~

"You're not coming," he snapped. She turned to face him. "This is our city, we can handle this."

~8~

"Well, she retorted, "this happens to be my criminal."

"That's ridiculous."

"You don't even know who it is, do you?" she asked.

"No, but I do know…"

"Well, I do and we both know how well you deal with her," she snapped. Robin immediately realized who she was talking about, but the rest of the Titans were very confused.

"Who says I can't deal with her?" he snapped back. He would NOT be made to feel like a stupid kid again. "We can handle this."

"Well, I'm coming."

"NO, you're not."

"Okay, I'm pulling rank on this," she said. When Robin started to protest, she pulled out a badge.

"No way," Robin said, staring at it. "They let you join?" The rest of the Titans recognized it as a Justice League Badge.

"Junior member," she told him.

"Fine," Robin reluctantly agreed, and marched off. "Come on guys." The rest of the Titans followed him.

~8~

On the way there, Robin shouted quick instructions to the rest of the Titans.

"Watch out for any kind of plants, she can control them, and she'll have a bunch of henchmen, so watch out for them too. And whatever you do, DON'T let her kiss you!" he yelled from his motorcycle, speeding along next to the T-car.

"WHAT?" Cyborg asked, sure he didn't hear right.

"I'll explain later," Robin assured him, as they pulled up in front of the bank. Immediately, about twenty large guys ran out, followed by a rather pretty lady wearing a tight-fitting green suit, with bright red hair. All of them were carrying large bags of money.

"Stop right there!" Robin ordered as he leapt off his motorcycle. The lady smiled.

"Awww, Robin, it's so good to see you!" she purred.

"I'm not falling for that anymore," he snapped. "You're just another criminal, Poison Ivy. Titans, GO!" The Titans rushed forward, and were met by the henchmen. The Titans fought their way through, Raven throwing people aside with her dark energy, Beastboy scarring them off as a tyrannosaurus rex, Cyborg and Starfire fighting the plants because they were worried that they might hurt the humans with their powers. Batgirl and Robin were trying to get through to Poison Ivy.

Suddenly, Robin froze. _The plants were retreating_. His second of hesitation was too long, and he saw a fist flying towards his face just a little too late. Then someone grabbed the arm, and flipped the goon backwards into a different one.

"Come on!" Batgirl yelled. They both raced for their motorcycles, and sped off in pursuit of Poison Ivy's retreating car. Poison Ivy turned a corner, and Batgirl glanced at Robin, then followed. Robin continued straight ahead to cut her off, silently cursing himself for falling back into their old pattern. He sped forward a couple of blocks, then turned so he was coming back towards Poison Ivy from the opposite direction.

Then Poison Ivy noticed him, and flicked her hand. Robin looked up for plants attacking him, but didn't see anything. Then he looked back at the road.

Poison Ivy had thrown kids from the tree next to the road onto the road right in his path. He swerved desperately, tried to brake, saw a concrete wall in front of him, then everything went black.

~8~

Robin was lying on something hard. He could feel something heavy on top of him. He could barely breathe, and his whole body ached. He couldn't even muster the strength to open his eyes.

"ROBIN!" he heard someone yell, he felt the weight on top of him shift slightly, then he passed out again.

~8~

"Come on, wake up." He was lying on his back now, and someone had removed his helmet.

"You are going to wake up Grayson." He recognized the voice now. He managed to open his eyes, and sure enough, there Batgirl was, bent over him, her eyes full of concern.

"I'm alright, Ba…Batgirl," he muttered. _She's __**Batgirl, **__maybe Gordon if I'm mad, but I'm not calling her Barbara again, much less Babs. That is in my past. I HAVE MOVED ON._ Robin could tell she was relieved, even though he could only see half her face. The old him would have teased her. But now he'd gotten his priorities strait. "Did she get away?" he asked. Instantly Batgirl's demeanor changed.

"Yeah, I'm completely incompetent," she said sarcastically, pulling back so she was kneeling next to him. "I set a tracker, the rest of your team's on it."

"No, they might…" Robin exclaimed, trying to sit up, but he stopped because the world was spinning. He felt her push him back to the ground. When he could open his eyes again, he continued. "They don't know about her. They might get hurt."

"Robin, they can handle it. Besides, I'm pretty sure you have a concussion," said Batgirl, slightly more gently. Then she sighed. "Of all the stupid things to do…"

"Are you saying I should have hit those kids?" he accused her.

"No, I'm just saying it would have been better if you didn't crash into a wall at 50mph."

"Oh, well," Robin couldn't find a way to retort that, "I'll try not to from now on."

~8~

They got back to Titan Tower late, because Robin had had to take several tests at the hospital to insure his brains weren't scrambled. Miraculously, he'd only sustained scrapes, bruises and minor cuts excluding the concussion. As soon as they entered the main room, Cyborg, Starfire and Beastboy all ran at him, yelling, "Robin!" Raven followed, much more calm than the others.

"Are you alright?" she asked. He nodded, then Starfire engulfed him in a giant hug. After a couple of seconds, Batgirl tapped her on the shoulder,

"Starfire, I don't think he can breathe." Starfire quickly released Robin, and he gasped. Then she turned and hugged Batgirl.

"I am most pleased that you are alright as well!" she exclaimed.

"Thanks," Batgirl managed to choke out. Then Starfire released her and hurried to go sit on the couch with Robin, Cyborg and Beastboy on the couch. Batgirl turned to Raven. "So you guys took down Poison Ivy?"

"Yeah," Raven said.

"She's one weird chick!" Cyborg called from the couch.

"She kept being all 'We barely know each other, we should bet better acquainted,' and we were all like 'no way," Beastboy threw in.

"Then she started saying that she feels bad for us because we get bossed around all the time," Cyborg said.

"And she tried to kiss Cyborg," Raven pointed out in her usual monotone. Cyborg shuddered at the thought.

"Sounds like her," Robin assured them, turning to look at Batgirl. "The question is, what was she doing here in the first place?"

"I'm pretty sure she was robbing a bank," Beastboy said, getting a dirty look from Raven.

"Mind if I call Batman and find out?" Batgirl asked. Robin started to say yes, he did mind, because he could figure out what was going on in his own city by himself. But he was shot down by the rest of the Titans. So Batgirl went over to the big screen. A few seconds later, Batman's face appeared.

"Yes?' he asked. When he saw Batgirl, he raised one of his eyebrows suspiciously. "Batgirl, why—"

"Poison Ivy showed up here," she cut him off. Batman lowered his eyebrow, but otherwise his expression didn't change.

"That's unusual," he stated, while he considered what that might mean. "She probably hoped Robin still had a soft spot for her," he concluded.

"I DID NOT!" Robin yelled, jumping to his feet, then sitting down holding his head.

"Sorry, but I'm rather busy at the moment," Batman continued, ignoring Robin's outburst. Batgirl nodded, then he vanished from the screen. Robin got to his feet, more slowly this time, and walked over to Batgirl. He inclined his head a little. Batgirl shrugged barely enough to be noticeable. Robin glared at her, and she glared back. A minute or so passed.

"So that's Batman," Cyborg said, trying to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Not very friendly, is he?" asked Beastboy, chucking feebly. No one responded. After a few more seconds, Cyborg tried again.

"Who wants waffles?"

"Yum!" Beastboy said walking with Cyborg to the kitchen.

"Will there be the strawberry syrup?" asked Starfire. Raven gave them all a disapproving look.

"FINE," snapped Robin suddenly, storming from the room.

"Um, so I guess Robin doesn't want waffles," Cyborg said, still trying to act normally. "What about—" But before he could finish, Batgirl marched out of the room too.

~8~

Robin entered his room, grabbed his pillow and chucked it, knocking some of his photographs, clippings and evidence off the wall. He stormed over to his desk, and pulled out his book of logic puzzles, trying to call himself down.

He heard the door open behind him.

"I don't want to talk about it," he said, figuring it was Raven or Cyborg, coming to ask what was wrong and try to calm him down.

"I don't care," Batgirl replied. He turned around. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," he snapped. "I hadn't heard from you in a year, and suddenly you show up and start questioning my leadership, and my ability to handle myself."

"WHAT?" Batgirl yelled. "I **tried** calling, you wouldn't talk to me!"

"Well, last time we talked, we wound up screaming at each other," Robin yelled back.

"That was **your** fault!"

"No it wasn't."

"I WAS TRYING TO BE OKAY WITH THE FACT THAT YOU WERE JUST SUDENLY DITCHING US, AND YOU GOT PISSED AT **ME**."

"WELL, IT ALL WORKED OUT, YOU AND **BATMAN** SEEM FINE WITHOUT ME. IS **THAT** WHY YOU WON'T TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"HE DIDN'T TELL ME ANYTHING EITHER. WILL YOU STOP BLAMING ME FOR EVERYTHING?"

"IT'S NOT **MY** FAULT THAT—"

"YOU'VE BEEN COMPLETELY HOSTILE TO ME SINCE I SHOWED UP! IF THIS IS YOUR WAY OF TELLING ME YOU DON'T STILL HAVE THAT STUPID CRUSH ON ME, YOU'RE A **TOTAL IDIOT**, GRAYSON!"

"Well, I don't, just so you know." They stopped for a minute, staring at each other.

"Is that supposed to upset me or something?" she asked, back in her normal speaking voice.

"Hardly seems like it would," he replied.

"Can't we just be friends again then?" she held out her hand. Robin smiled.

"Yeah," he said, shaking her hand. "Sorry I've been being an idiot."

"Don't worry about it," she said, then she teased, "It's your normal state of being after all." They both laughed. Then he pulled her into a hug.

"It is good to see you, Babs."

"You too," she said, pulling back. "So how do you feel about waffles?"

"I actually do like waffles," he said smiling. Then he raised his voice. "You guys better go back to the kitchen now!"

They both laughed as they heard the Titans scramble away from the door where they'd been trying to eavesdrop after they heard Robin and Batgirl screaming at each other.


	2. Preview of next story!

**A/N: Hey, so I'm making a sequal, (It's called Past, Present and Future) and here's a preview of the first chapter to entertain you for the moment!**

Robin was bent over his desk, shuffling through papers, looking for some sort of clue. Something big was going on. He just wasn't quite sure what yet. He heard a knock on the door.

"Robin?" Starfire's voice asked. "We are considering ordering the take-out. Would you like some?"

"I'm fine, thanks," he replied without taking his eyes off the papers strewn all over his desk. He heard Starfire leave. Suddenly his thought process was disturbed by a loud beeping noise. He checked his communicator, and it was silent. He checked his pager, computer, phone, and alarm clock for good measure. He was now officially annoyed. The sound appeared to be coming from his closet. He walked in, checking each of his uniforms carefully. There wasn't anything in any of his boots, or extra uniforms. Finally, when he had thrown everything else out of his closet he found a small box, which was lighting up with each beep. He couldn't even remember what was in that box.

He emerged from his closet, noting the mess he'd made. He **hated** it when his room was messy. He was going to have to fix that later. He placed the box on his bed, carefully opening it. In it were all his old gadgets. There were baterangs, anti-freeze pills, his old gas mask, and finally, a small black ear plug, beeping incisively. He put it in, surprised it still fit.

"ROBIN WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" a girl's voice immediately growled in his head.

"Hi Babs," he replied. "Sorry but my stuff—"

"Never mind. I'll be there in ten," with that, Batgirls voice disappeared. Robin stood there stunned. Then something stuck him. **His room was a total disaster and Babs would be here in ten minutes!** Quickly he started throwing everything back into his closet, in an uncharacteristically messy fashion.


End file.
